| Year: | 2010 |
| Gender: | men's |
| Division: | Division I |
| Teams: | 16 |
| Frozenfourarena: | Ford Field |
| Frozenfourcity: | Detroit, Michigan |
| Champions: | Boston College Eagles |
| Titlecount: | 4th |
| Champgamecount: | 10th |
| Champffcount: | 22nd |
| Runnerup: | Wisconsin Badgers |
| Gamecount: | 9th |
| Runnerffcount: | 12th |
| Semifinal1: | Miami RedHawks |
| Frozenfourcount: | 2nd |
| Semifinal2: | RIT Tigers |
| Frozenfourcount2: | 1st |
| Coach: | Jerry York |
| Coachcount: | 4th |
| Mop: | Ben Smith |
| Mopteam: | Boston College |
| Attendance: | 37,592 (Championship) 107,500 (Frozen Four) 171,795 (Tournament) |
The 2010 NCAA Division I men's ice hockey tournament involved 16 schools in single-elimination play to determine the national champion of men's NCAA Division I college ice hockey. The tournament began on March 26, 2010, and ended with the championship game on April 10, in which Boston College defeated Wisconsin 5–0 to win its fourth national championship.[1]
The four regionals are officially named after their geographic areas. The following are the sites for the 2010 regionals:[1]
Each regional winner will advance to the Frozen Four:[1]
The at-large bids and seeding for each team in the tournament were announced on March 21, 2010.[2] The Central Collegiate Hockey Association (CCHA) and Western Collegiate Hockey Association (WCHA) each had four teams receive a berth in the tournament, Hockey East had three teams receive a berth, College Hockey America (CHA) and ECAC Hockey had two berths each, and Atlantic Hockey had one team receive a berth.
| Midwest Regional – Fort Wayne | East Regional – Albany | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Seed | School | Conference | Record | Berth type | Seed | School | Conference | Record | Berth type | |
| 1 | Miami (1) | CCHA | 27–7–7 | At-large bid | 1 | Denver (2) | WCHA | 27–9–4 | At-large bid | |
| 2 | Bemidji State | CHA | 23–9–4 | At-large bid | 2 | Cornell | ECAC Hockey | 21–8–4 | Tournament champion | |
| 3 | Michigan | CCHA | 25–17–1 | Tournament champion | 3 | New Hampshire | Hockey East | 17–13–7 | At-large bid | |
| 4 | Alabama–Huntsville | CHA | 12–17–3 | Tournament champion | 4 | RIT | Atlantic Hockey | 26–11–1 | Tournament champion | |
| Northeast Regional – Worcester | West Regional – St. Paul | |||||||||
| Seed | School | Conference | Record | Berth type | Seed | School | Conference | Record | Berth type | |
| 1 | Boston College (4) | Hockey East | 25–10–3 | Tournament champion | 1 | Wisconsin (3) | WCHA | 25–10–4 | At-large bid | |
| 2 | North Dakota | WCHA | 25–12–5 | Tournament champion | 2 | St. Cloud State | WCHA | 23–13–5 | At-large bid | |
| 3 | Yale | ECAC Hockey | 20–9–3 | At-large bid | 3 | Northern Michigan | CCHA | 20–12–8 | At-large bid | |
| 4 | Alaska* | CCHA | 18–11–9 | At-large bid | 4 | Vermont | Hockey East | 17–14–7 | At-large bid | |
Number in parentheses denotes overall seed in the tournament.
* Alaska has since been stripped of their tournament appearance due to NCAA violations found during a 2014 investigation.
Note: * denotes overtime period(s)
All times are local (EDT/CDT).
The regional final between Michigan and Miami was not without controversy. In the first overtime, Michigan appeared to score what would have been the game-winning goal when Kevin Lynch scored on a rebound in a scrum in front of the Miami net. However, after a video review, the goal was disallowed as the play had been whistled dead before the goal was scored to assess a Miami penalty. NCAA Director of Officials Steve Piotrowski clarified that officials blew the whistle as Lynch touched the puck, with a Miami player touching the puck in the crease and the puck briefly stopped underneath Miami goalie Connor Knapp, both occurring before the goal. The game continued until Miami sophomore Alden Hirschfeld scored 1:54 into double overtime, securing the 3-2 RedHawk victory.[3] [4]
| Scoring summary | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Period | Team | Goal | Assist(s) | Time | Score | |||
| 1st | align=center style=";" | BC | Ben Smith (16) – GW PP | S. Whitney and J. Whitney | align=center | 12:57 | align=center | 1–0 BC |
| 2nd | None | |||||||
| 3rd | align=center style=";" | BC | Cam Atkinson (29) | J. Whitney and Gibbons | align=center | 41:38 | align=center | 2–0 BC |
| align=center style=";" | BC | Chris Kreider (15) | Hayes and Samuelsson | align=center | 43:40 | align=center | 3–0 BC | |
| align=center style=";" | BC | Cam Atkinson (30) – PP | Gibbons and J. Whitney | align=center | 47:20 | align=center | 4–0 BC | |
| align=center style=";" | BC | Matt Price (5) – EN | unassisted | align=center | 55:29 | align=center | 5–0 BC | |
| Penalty summary | ||||||||
| Period | Team | Player | Penalty | Time | PIM | |||
| 1st | align=center style=";" | BC | Joe Whitney | Interference | align=center | 1:17 | align=center | 2:00 |
| align=center style=";" | WIS | Ryan McDonagh | Cross–Checking | align=center | 5:24 | align=center | 2:00 | |
| align=center style=";" | WIS | John Mitchell | Contact to the Head Elbowing | align=center | 11:04 | align=center | 2:00 | |
| 2nd | align=center style=";" | WIS | Jake Gardiner | Interference | align=center | 23:16 | align=center | 2:00 |
| align=center style=";" | BC | Joe Whitney | Clipping | align=center | 24:21 | align=center | 2:00 | |
| 3rd | align=center style=";" | WIS | Craig Smith | Contact to the Head Elbowing | align=center bgcolor=ddffdd | 46:32 | align=center bgcolor=ddffdd | 2:00 |
| align=center style=";" | WIS | Podge Turnbull | Contact to the Head | align=center | 47:20 | align=center | 2:00 | |
| align=center style=";" | BC | Joe Whitney | Unsportsmanlike Conduct | align=center | 50:19 | align=center | 2:00 | |
| align=center style=";" | BC | Brian Gibbons | Slashing | align=center | 57:52 | align=center | 2:00 | |
| align=center style=";" | WIS | Craig Smith | Slashing | align=center | 57:52 | align=center | 2:00 | |
| Shots by period | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | T | ||||||
| align=center style=";" | Boston College | align=center | 12 | align=center | 6 | align=center | 8 | align=center | 26 | |
| align=center style=";" | Wisconsin | align=center | 5 | align=center | 9 | align=center | 6 | align=center | 20 | |
| Goaltenders | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Team | Name | Saves | Goals against | Time on ice | |||||
| align=center style=";" | BC | align=center | 20 | align=center | 0 | align=center | 60:00 | ||
| align=center style=";" | WIS | align=center | 20 | align=center | 4 | align=center | 58:41 | ||
| Conference |
| Record | Win % | Regional Finals | Frozen Four | Championship Game | Champions | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CCHA | 4 | 3–4 | .429 | 2 | 1 | – | – | |
| WCHA | 4 | 4–4 | .500 | 2 | 1 | 1 | – | |
| Hockey East | 3 | 5–2 | .714 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | |
| CHA | 2 | 0–2 | .000 | – | – | – | – | |
| ECAC Hockey | 2 | 1–2 | .333 | 1 | – | – | – | |
| Atlantic Hockey | 1 | 2–1 | .667 | 1 | 1 | – | – |
ESPN had US television rights to all games during the tournament. For the sixth consecutive year ESPN aired every game, beginning with the regionals, on ESPN, ESPN2, and ESPNU, and ESPN360.
Regionals
Frozen Four & Championship
Westwood One used exclusive radio rights to air both the semifinals and the championship, AKA the "Frozen Four.
* Most Outstanding Player(s)[7]